Amid reports yesterday that the Inspector General of Police, IGP Suleiman Abba, had given orders for the arrest of the House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, should he fail to honour an invitation to appear at the Force Headquarters over Thursday’s fiasco at the National Assembly, a spokesman for the speaker has declared his readiness to answer any lawful invitation from any of the security agencies.
The Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to the speaker, Imam Imam, in a statement on Friday, said Mr. Tambuwal, as a law abiding citizen, who has no immunity against arrest and prosecution except privileges as may be provided by the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act, is available, ready and willing to present himself to the security agencies on any matter for which they may require his attention.
The speaker, however, expressed dismay at the unprofessional conduct of the Nigerian Police to stop him from gaining access to the House of Representatives chambers on Thursday to preside over the Special Session of the House on the State of Emergency Extension requested by President Goodluck Jonathan, for which he had recalled members from their working recess.
The statement further described as “most disgraceful”, the false statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Ag. CP Emmanuel Ojuwku, to the effect that “Alh Aminu Tambuwal CFR, arrived the venue with a motley crowd, who broke the cordon, assaulted the Police and evaded due process”.
According to the speaker, “This blatant falsehood coming from a law enforcement agency, that is expected to be neutral and lawful, is unfortunate, to say the least”.
Imam added that “For the avoidance of doubt, the Hon Speaker came to National Assembly accompanied by Hon Members as is customary during any sitting of the House. They all came with their official vehicles but were disallowed from driving into the premises. Certainly Hon Members, who arrived the precinct of the National Assembly in response to a call to perform an urgent, critical national assignment, cannot be described by any self-respecting institution as ‘a motley crowd’.
“It is important to remind the Nigeria Police Force that as a public institution that provides common services for all the arms of government, they must not allow themselves to be used by one of the arms to undermine the others”.
